SCIENTISTS UNDER ATTACK - a major GM workshop

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SCIENTISTS UNDER ATTACK - a major GM workshop

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Thu, 16 Dec 2004 15:33:47 GMT

 

 

SCIENTISTS UNDER ATTACK - a major GM workshop

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SCIENTISTS UNDER ATTACK - a mjor GM workshop

 

Scientists under attack - reaction to research on the environmental

and health impacts of GM crops - a major GM workshop at the Soil

Association's

annual conference on 8 January 2005

 

Speakers: Professor Ignacio Chapela, Dr Arphad Pusztai, Dr Terje

Traavik and with Dr Andrew Stirling in the chair

 

Saturday, 8 January 2005 4.30pm - 6.00, Slow Food lunch 1.00 - 3.30;

Newcastle Civic Centre [uK]

 

The Soil Association's national conference will include a major

workshop on GM. For the first time ever Dr Arphad Pusztai, Dr Terje

Traavik

and

Ignacio Chapela - the three leading international scientists attacked

and undermined by biotech companies and their supporters for raising

health or environmental concerns about GM crops or food - are appearing

together on a public platform. The meeting will be chaired by Dr Andrew

Stirling of

Sussex University.

 

Discussion will cover how the GM lobby has attempted to stifle research

questioning the safety of GM products, whether the concerns raised by

these scientists are valid, and what was the impact of the controversy

has been on the scientists themselves. As an extra benefit you will

also be

able to enjoy an unforgettable (and guaranteed no GM) organic slow

food lunch just before the workshop session.

 

SPECIAL OFFER: Attend the Workshop and get a Soil Association Slow

Food organic lunch for a combined charge of £15.00. To book contact Lisa

Jones at LJones or call 0117 9874586 (switchboard

0117 314 5000).

 

Workshop Highlights:

The speakers are Dr Arphad Pusztai, Dr Terje Traavik, Scientific, Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology, School of Medicine,

University of

Tromso and Ignacio Chapela Assistant Professor of Microbial Ecology,

University of California, Berkley. All three have felt the backlash

when they found evidence that did not suit the GM industry and pro-GM

scientists. Arphad Pusztai's notorious treatment by his employers and

the

Royal

Society is well known. Ignacio Chapela's findings of contaminated

maize in Mexico led to him being refused tenure (a dispute still

firmly in

the news)

and to the withdrawal of his paper by Nature. Terje Traavik works in a

country with a more rational and impartial view on GM than either the

UK or the USA, which has reduced the personal impact of his

announcement of findings of possible adverse health impacts on people

living near

a GM

crop, but not the world-wide attack that followed.

 

The Chair, Dr. Stirling, was a member of the UK Government GM Science

Advisory Panel which was established last year to produce a report on GM

scientific issues as part of the 'GM debate'. The Panel was chaired by

the Government's Chief Scientist, Sir David King, but consisted mainly

of

scientists in favour of GM. The Government's official minutes of one

of the meetings record that a leading figure in UK science advice system

on GM, approached a major funding body urging them to remove Dr.

Stirling from an advisory role in which he was then serving The reason

was

the sceptical position that he was taking in the GM Science Review Panel.

The attempt was unsuccessful, and this provides the first instance in

the UK of official acknowledgement of the reality of this kind of

pressure.

 

There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion with the

audience.

______________________

 

The Soil Association Slow Food lunch on Saturday 8 January will have

organic and wild food, and drink, from all over the UK. You will be able

to taste and buy the very best that small-scale, organic artisan

producers have to offer. The emphasis will be on good provenance and

great

taste, with plenty of regionally distinctive foods and recipes from

around 60 producers. The Slow Food lunch will be served at Newcastle

Civic

Centre.

 

The Soil Association's 17th annual conference, with 600 delegates

already booked, promises to be the biggest and best yet. The main

three days

of the event (7-9 January) are being organised jointly by the Soil

Association and the Quality Low Input Food (QLIF) project - a GBP12

million

five-year

European research and training initiative led by Professor Carlo

Leifert at Newcastle University. QLIF brings together 31 research

institutions,

universities and companies throughout Europe and beyond. Its aim is to

help maximise the health benefits generated through organic and

low-input

agriculture by enabling farmers, growers and processors to deliver food

safety and improve the nutritional quality of what they produce (see

www.qlif.org).

 

To book visit http://www.soilassociation.org/conference download a

booking form and fax or post it to us.

 

We hope you'll want to come for the whole conference - there is plenty

for anyone interested in the real alternative to GM crops and pesticide

dependant farming (and there is a technical workshop on 'Strategies to

avoid GM contamination' chaired by Ralph Martin, Nova Scotia

Agricultural

College, Canada, on the Friday afternoon).

 

The programme for the special half-day offer is:

 

12.45 - 3.45pm Soil Association Slow Food Lunch and Marketplace -

Newcastle Civic Centre

3.45pm Tea Newcastle Civic Centre

4.30pm - 6.00 Scientists under attack - reaction to research on the

environmental and health impacts of GM crops - Newcastle University

lecture theatre (room number to be confirmed on booking, or see

information

at Newcastle Civic Centre)

 

 

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